Effect of CdTe monolayer insertion on CdZnTe/ZnTe quantum well characteristics

The effect of CdTe monolayer (ML) insertion on the structural and luminescence characteristics of ZnCdTe/ZnTe quantum well (QW) was investigated by a high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and photoluminescence (PL) methods. The structures were grown by MBE on just-oriented or 3° off (0 0 1) GaAs substrate and contained Zn0.6Cd0.4Te QW with or without CdTe 1 ML insertion embedded in the middle of QW. HRXRD(0 0 4) diffraction profiles and reciprocal space maps in the vicinity of the (0 0 4) reflection were measured. CdTe insertion led to the shift of QW-related peak to larger angels as well as to significant broadening and disappearance of fringes. The low-temperature PL investigations showed that CdTe insertion resulted in a “blue” shift of the QW PL peak position, in the two times narrowing of the QW PL band and one order of value increase of its intensity.